


Every Love Story Has A Beginning

by NellyHarrison



Series: Not Your Typical Love Story [1]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Mentions Ray Palmer, Multi, Neighbors, Smoaking billionaires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-14
Updated: 2015-08-14
Packaged: 2018-04-14 16:48:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4572123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NellyHarrison/pseuds/NellyHarrison
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Felicity's life is the epitome of normal.  She's a hard-working student with a great roommate in a nice apartment building.  When two impossibly handsome men move in across the hall, they quickly turn her life upside down.  Every love story has a beginning...  This is theirs.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Every Love Story Has A Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> So this idea sort of just came to me one day and I sat down and started writing it and this is what came of that. A very special thanks to [Scifan77](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Scifan77/pseuds/Scifan77) for being my beta. I hope you like reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

“Nelly, for the millionth time, I don’t _care_ what they’re doing.  I have a project that I need to finish and I-”  


“Lis!  I don’t think you understand.  They’re _shirtless_ and moving _furniture_ which means they’re _sweating_ and it’s _hot_!” she told her roommate, crawling onto her bed and rolling around on her books, making the blonde laugh.  “Come on.  We finally have people living across the hall that don’t make the whole floor smell like old fish and they’re close to our age and you’re missing it.  Come on, Lis.  Five minutes of ogling the hot floormates won’t kill you.”

Felicity looked down at her roommate who was now basically in her lap as she pouted up at her, then sighed as she pushed her off.  “Fine.  Five minutes and then I’m going back to work.  Got it?”

Nelly squealed and jumped up, clapping her hands before pulling Felicity towards the door.  She opened it up and stepped into the hall, where two men were carrying a couch up the stairs.  “Look,” Nelly whispered, pulling Felicity closer so she would join her.  As she watched them, her eyes widened slightly.  The first one was tall, with blonde hair and muscles for days.  Add in that he was covered in sweat and completely shirtless, and she was pretty sure her knees almost buckled.  But that could have easily been because she finally got a better look at the second man.  He was a little bit shorter, not quite as built but still defined, and with darker hair.  What really got her swooning was his smile, which was in full force due to something his friend must have said.  As they got closer, Nelly nudged her, which quickly had her closing her apparently open mouth and straightening up.  “Need help moving anything?” Nelly asked, having both guys looking over at them.  

_Wow those smiles should be illegal.  And those eyes.  Shake it off, Felicity._

“We’re mostly done.  Thanks though,” the blond guy said.  He went to go move the couch again, but his friend shot him a look and they stopped.

“Ignore Ollie.  He clearly forgot how to talk to beautiful women,” the other man flirted, making the Nelly laugh and Felicity bow her head as she smiled.  “We’re actually having a housewarming party tonight if you two want to stop by.  It’s BYOB, but we’re gonna order pizza and it’s gonna be a blast.  Plus, we’ll be there,” he added with a smirk that had Felicity rolling her eyes and Nelly laughing again.

The brunette looked at her roommate, basically pleading with her eyes for them to go.  “I guess we could stop by,” Felicity decided, making Nelly squeal excitedly.  “But only for a little bit.”

“I’m gonna get you to have fun.  I’m determined,” the dark-haired guy declared.  “We’ll see you later.”  The guys went into their apartment with the couch, and Felicity went back into the apartment to finish her work.

“Lissy, this isn’t over.  We need to pick outfits!” Nelly chased after her.

* * *

Later that night, after Felicity finished her work and allowed Nelly to dress her in some dress she hadn’t worn in ages, the two girls walked across the hall with bottles of wine and knocked on the door.  At a shouted “Come in!” they joined the party, which was actually pretty packed.  Felicity was surprised to recognize a few people from school, and there was even the cute guy a few floors down that she’d had a crush on since she met him.

“Well if it isn’t the wet blanket,” a teasing voice said as he got closer.

Felicity smiled over at the dark-haired man and crossed her arms over her chest.  “I’m not a wet blanket.”

“I never caught your name, so I wasn’t sure what else to call you,” he joked, offering his hand.  “I’m Tommy.”

“Felicity,” she replied, shaking his hand.  “And this is my roommate Nelly,” she introduced the brunette, who then shook Tommy’s hand.  “Pretty nice party.”

“Yeah, it kind of got out of hand, but I promise we’ll try to shut it down by two,” he assured her.

“Two?” Felicity asked, her eyes widening.  “I have an 8 AM class tomorrow.  Can’t you have it shut down by midnight?”

“No good party ends before midnight, blondie,” he chuckled, looking over at Nelly like her roommate was insane.

“I’m not getting involved,” Nelly decided, walking off and leaving Tommy and Felicity to their argument.

“First of all, my name’s Felicity, not blondie.  And second of all, I don’t care what the party protocol is.  I don’t know where you lived before, but there are people around here that work and have school and there’s no way we can get the proper sleep with a big party going on,” she insisted.

“What’s going on over here?” a voice asked, and Felicity turned to watch the other guy joining his roommate.  “Hey.  You clean up nice.”

Felicity sighed and muttered a soft, “thank you,” before Tommy shot his friend a look.

“No, we’re not being nice right now.  Felicity here wants us to shut the party down by midnight,” he told Oliver, who quickly looked back at Felicity with a confused expression.

“Why?” he asked her.

“Look, I get that you guys are new here, and I don’t want to be this person, but we have unspoken rules in the building.  One of the biggest is the quiet hours after midnight.  I’m not saying you have to completely shut down the party, but just make it smaller, I guess.  Make it like a VIP after party sort of deal,” she suggested, putting a hand on her hip.

Oliver looked at Tommy, raising his eyebrows as they had a silent conversation just by looking at each other.  With a sigh, Tommy broke eye contact and returned his attention to Felicity.  “I suppose that’s not a horrible idea.  We’ll keep it quiet.”

Felicity smiled at that, glad they could come to an understanding, and nodded.  “Thank you.  Now do you have a bottle opener for this?” she questioned, raising her bottle of wine.

Tommy brightened up at that and offered his arm, making Felicity laugh as she took it and let him lead her away.  Little did they know that Oliver was watching them with a perplexed and conflicted expression.

* * *

It had been several months since Tommy and Oliver had moved in across the hall.  Nelly had made the mistake of sleeping with Oliver after the party, and he hadn’t called her afterwards, which made her fascination with both of them quickly end.  Felicity didn’t have a problem with them, but she did her best to support her friend.  Since they’d moved in, Felicity had seen a slew of girls come out of the boys’ apartment, which only solidified her impression that they were eternal bachelors.  Not that she really cared.  They threw nice parties that they always invited Felicity and Nelly to, and after the first party, Felicity didn’t have to insist they quiet down.  It was a good arrangement.

Better than her friendships with Oliver and Tommy, Felicity managed to connect with Ray, the cute guy a few floors down.  They’d been dating for a few weeks, but with him trying to get his company up and running and her finishing school, they hadn’t made anything official.  Maybe that had been a mistake, because when Felicity had decided to drive out to his office to surprise him, she caught him sleeping with his business partner.

Driving home, she stopped and got about four bottles of wine, two pints of ice cream, and six chocolate bars.  By the time she reached her floor, she was sniffling and wiping away her tears, feeling absolutely miserable and ready to drown herself in junk food and booze.  As she reached into her purse for her keys, she heard the door behind her open.

“Felicity?”  She turned around to see Oliver standing there, his eyebrows furrowing when he saw how upset she was.  “Hey, what happened?” he asked, moving forward and reaching up to brush away a tear.

She shook her head, then reached up to wipe her cheeks.  “I caught Ray with someone else.  I know we weren’t serious, but I didn’t think he was seeing anyone else.”

Oliver frowned, then looked down at what was in her arms.  “Wine and ice cream?”

“Perfect recipe to heal a broken heart.  That and watching Nicholas Sparks movies until I fall asleep,” she explained, shrugging a shoulder.

“Alone?”

“Yeah, well Nelly’s out with her new boyfriend, so it’s either that or I ruin her night, and I don’t want to do that,” she muttered, adjusting the bags in her arms.

“I have a better idea,” he told her, a small smile growing on his lips.  “Tommy and I are going to our friend’s club opening.  You should come.”

“I don’t know if going out tonight is the best idea,” she muttered, frowning slightly.

“Felicity, you’re too great to spend a night sulking over a guy that wasn’t worth your time to begin with,” Oliver told her, his eyes locked with hers.

She bit the inside of her cheek, pondering his offer, then let out a sigh.  “You know what?  You’re right.  Well, not about him not being worth my time, because he was great until he decided to be an ass, but I shouldn’t be sulking.  I should go out and have fun,” she decided, smiling up at him.  “I’d love to go.”

He nodded and took the keys from her to open her door for her.  “Go put that away and get ready.  We’re leaving in about an hour.”  With that, he turned and went back to his apartment to get ready himself.

An hour later, Felicity was ready and waiting for the boys to drop by and get her.  She couldn’t help but find some humor in the fact that she’d initially bought the dress she was wearing to go out with Ray.  It was a black cutout mini dress, a lot sexier than she usually wore, but if she was going to do this, she was going to go all out.  Dressing up and looking good was already making her feel better.  When there was a knock on her door, she walked over, grabbed her clutch, and opened the door to see Oliver and Tommy standing there looking incredibly handsome.

“Woah,” Oliver muttered, looking her over with a shocked expression on his face.

“Yeah, what he said,” Tommy agreed, also taking the time to check her out, making Felicity turn bright red.

“Are we going or are you two just going to keep staring at me?” she asked, reaching up and brushing back her hair.

“Well I don’t know about Oliver, but I’d be perfectly okay with continuing to stare at you,” Tommy declared, eliciting a laugh from Felicity who reached out and smacked his arm.

“I’m leaving,” she decided, pushing past them and walking down the hall.  She turned to see them watching her still which made her roll her eyes.  “Coming knuckleheads?”

Tommy and Oliver managed to pull themselves together and started following after her and out of the building.  The car ride to the club was relatively short and filled with teasing, joking, and light conversation that continued to keep Felicity feeling better.  She hoped that by the end of the night, she would be past her heartbreak and over Ray.  Well, maybe not completely over him since that was unrealistic, but over him enough that she could move on with her life.  Pulling up to the club, Felicity saw a bunch of people with cameras, which immediately made her nervous.

“Why are there cameras?” she asked, turning to her floormates.

“It’s kind of expected that there would be paparazzi at Max Fuller’s club opening,” Oliver mused, making sure his suit was cleaned off.

“ _Max Fuller_ is your friend?!” she exclaimed, gaping at them.

“Did Ollie not mention that?” Tommy asked, smirking over at her.  “Get ready for your close-up, Smoak.”

The car door was opened, and the boys exited the car, Oliver on the street side and Tommy on the sidewalk.  While Oliver walked around, Tommy held his hand out for Felicity to take.  She stepped out of the car and blinked at the bright flashing lights, her arm looping with his as Oliver joined them and let her take his arm as well.  A bunch of questions were being yelled out to Oliver and Tommy, including who the “blonde bombshell” was.

“This is our good friend, Felicity Smoak.  She needed a fun night out and we couldn’t imagine anything better than bringing her to Max’s club.  How awesome does this place look?” Tommy asked them, chuckling charmingly along with the photographers.  “Have a good night, you guys,” he ended, Oliver and Tommy escorting Felicity into the club.

“Who are you guys?” she asked, shaking her head as she looked at them.  “I knew you liked to party, but that was… Wow.  I’m seriously impressed.”

“If that impresses you, wait until the first group of fake people appears.  Oliver’s really good at making people think we actually care about their European excursions and tiny, yippy dogs,” he told her, making her snort a laugh.  “Let’s go get some drinks.”

The night started out shocking and insane, and it basically continued on that path.  Felicity met a lot of really impressive people, as well as some businessmen and businesswomen that could really end up helping her professionally.  She drank a bit more than she probably should have, mostly because Oliver and Tommy’s preferred drinks were shots.  Somehow, she ended up on the dancefloor, twirling and bouncing around with Tommy and Oliver, feeling so light and free.

She moved towards Oliver and leaned up to talk into his ear so he could hear her.  “You were right.  This is exactly what I needed,” she told him, pulling back to smile up at him as his hands moved to her hips.  She mouthed a ‘thank you’, then put her hands on her shoulders as they danced.  Something flashed in his eyes that had her biting her lip and moving a bit closer, his arms wrapping around her waist as hers moved around his neck.  She felt someone come up behind her and turned to see Tommy, looking down at her with that same something in his eyes.  His hands splayed on her hips, just below Oliver’s arms, and his nose nuzzled at the back of her neck, causing her eyes to fall closed.  A part of her knew this was probably a bad idea, but she couldn’t say she hadn’t thought about what it would be like to be with Tommy and Oliver.  None of those thoughts had involved _both_ of them however.

They moved together, Felicity’s hand lacing with Tommy’s on her hip as he began kissing her neck, a soft moan escaping her that had Oliver’s arms tightening around her.  “Felicity,” he muttered, which should have been too quiet for her to hear, but their faces were so close.  Her eyes opened and met his, her stomach twisting as he bowed his head and kissed her.  Was this really happening?  There was no way this was actually happening.  Her hand cupped his cheek as she kissed him back, another small moan falling against his lips as Tommy nipped at the exposed skin at the dip of her shoulder.

“Wait, wait,” she pulled away, stepping out of their arms and looking at both of them, their expressions far too similar to lions ready to feast.  Her heart was racing and while she really wanted to keep doing what they’d been doing, they were in the middle of a club.  “I can’t- This isn’t-” she stuttered, then bit her bottom lip and turned to make her way out of the club.

Tommy and Oliver looked at each other for a moment before following her.  Both were a bit surprised she could move so fast considering she was significantly shorter than them and was wearing heels.  By the time they got outside, she was already quite a ways down the street.  “Crap,” Oliver muttered before beginning to run, Tommy following him.  “Felicity!”

“No, no, uh uh,” she muttered, waving her hands as she kept walking.  They quickly caught up with her and stopped her from walking any further.  “ _That_ was a bad idea.  A very, very bad idea and I’m going to go home and eat ice cream and drink wine and watching Nicholas Sparks movies like I’d initially planned because _this_ ,” she gestured between the three of them, “is not going to end well.”

“Why not?” Tommy asked, shoving his hands into his pockets.

“What do you mean, ‘why not’?” she repeated, looking up at him with confusion.

“Why wouldn’t this end well?” Oliver wondered, crossing his arms over his chest.

She gaped at them for a moment, not believing that they actually thought that anything happening between the three of them could end in anything less than disaster.  “There are three of us.  If we do anything, it will make everything infinitely more complicated.  Not only would our friendships be ruined, but eventually I’d probably favor one of you and the other would be really hurt.  Or both of you would get tired of me.  Plus, we live across the hall from each other.”

“Okay, yeah, all of that could happen, but what if it doesn’t?” Oliver pointed out.

“Yeah, I mean this could just be one night, if you’re that concerned about it ruining our friendship,” Tommy added.

“Or it could be something more and work out perfectly,” Oliver continued.  “It doesn’t have to end badly.”

“Okay, now I’m really confused.  Where is this coming from?” she asked, looking over at the men with an expression of absolute confusion.  They glanced at each other, almost like they were hiding something and were unsure of whether to reveal it.  “What’s going on here?”

“Ollie and I have talked about this,” Tommy started, reaching up and rubbing the back of his neck.

“Talked about what?” Felicity questioned.

“Us,” Oliver answered.  “The three of us.”

“ _What_?”

Tommy sighed and walked forward, taking one of Felicity’s hands into his.  “We like you.  Both of us.  Obviously we haven’t acted on it because we knew you were seeing Ray, and we know the timing sucks, but we can’t exactly stop liking you.”  He looked back at Oliver, who simply nodded, giving him the apparent courage he needed to continue.  “Ollie and I aren’t exactly inexperienced when it comes to having feelings for the same woman.  We’ve shared in the past, but that was usually for one night, and then it ended.  But you’re not just someone we want one night with, Felicity.”

“We want you,” Oliver finally spoke up.  “We both want you, for as long as you’ll have us,” he finished, stepping forward and taking her other hand.

Felicity gaped at them, the idea they’d just presented taking a few moments to register.  She looked between them, then at their hands, then back up at them again.  “I’ve never been in this situation before.  I’ve never had two friends like me and I don’t want to hurt either of you…  I just ended things with Ray.  I can’t deny that what happened in the club was nice, like _really_ nice, but I don’t know if I’m ready to jump into something new, especially not something this complicated.  Can you give me some time to think about it?”

They both nodded, leaning in and kissing her cheeks before Oliver assured her, “Take all the time that you need.”  They took her hands and moved them to their arms, then began guiding her back to the club.  Their car was brought around, and the three of them made their way back to their building.  It was much quieter this time around, a bit of tension in the air, but Felicity couldn’t tell if it was sexual tension leftover from the club or awkward tension from her putting them on hold.  She couldn’t believe this had happened, and she definitely couldn’t believe that they were giving her the time to figure all of it out.  For so long, Felicity had thought of them as two partiers who liked to sleep around, but in the few hours she’d spent with them that night, she’d already seen sides of them she didn’t know existed.  It intrigued her, and it would definitely play a part in her decision-making.

Once they got to their floor, Oliver and Tommy walked her to her door.  She pulled out her keys and put them in the door, then turned to them.  “Give me a week to figure this out and then I’ll give you my decision, okay?”  They simply nodded, then Oliver stepped forward and pulled her in by her waist, his lips slanting over hers in a slow, burning kiss.  When he pulled away and stepped back, Tommy moved in, sliding his fingers into her hair to cup the side of her neck before kissing her deeply, his thumb brushing against her skin as he pulled away.  With a hazy mind, Felicity entered her apartment, glancing back at them one last time before closing the door between them.  Her hand reached up, her fingers touching her still tingling lips as a smile grew on them, the only reaction she could form being, “Woah.”

* * *

“Both of them.”

“Yes.”

“Together.”

“Yes.”

“At the same time.”

“Yes.”

“I don’t believe you.”

Felicity sighed and fell back on her bed, groaning at her roommate.  “Trust me, if I wasn’t there, I wouldn’t believe _myself_.  I still don’t know how it happened, but it did, and apparently they’d already talked about it and had been thinking about it.  They want to date me, Nelly.”

“How would that even work?” she asked, leaning against Felicity’s headboard as she tossed some popcorn into her mouth.

“I did some research, and it’s called polyamory.  Basically we all respect each other, we’re all in agreement of the arrangement, and we all remain honest with each other about our feelings so if anyone feels like it’s not working, we can deal with it together.  It seems like it could work, but it’s not like this is a common situation,” Felicity explained, covering her face with her arm.

“Okay, so the semantics seem pretty damn perfect, but it all comes down to one factor,” the brunette stated, drawing Felicity’s attention.

“And what’s that?” she asked.

“Do you want to be with Tommy and Oliver?” Nelly asked her friend.  “You and Ray just ended, even if it wasn’t serious.  He hurt you.  Are you ready to let not just one guy in but two?”

Felicity sighed, looking up at the ceiling as she thought about the question.  “I like Tommy and Oliver.  I like who they are and who they’re showing me they can be.  I liked how I felt when I was with them.  I’m attracted to both of them, not just physically and sexually, but mentally and emotionally too.  But I don’t know if I’m ready to jump into something.”

Nelly nodded, figuring that would be the case.  She put the popcorn on the side table and moved so she was lying next to her friend.  “Maybe you should go out with them once.  A proper date.  That way you can see how it would work and see if you’re ready for that.  If not, then at least you can say you tried, right?”

“Yeah, I guess there’s no harm in that.  I’m just worried this will end badly.  I haven’t exactly had much luck dating one guy at a time.  I’m not sure I’ll do much better dating two,” Felicity pointed out, scrunching her nose as she frowned.

Her roommate only laughed at that, then wrapped her arms around her friend to comfort her.  “Maybe you were always destined to be a two-man woman, Felicity Smoak,” she teased, making Felicity smack her arm as they both laughed.  “Just do what makes you happy, Felicity.  I know you.  You’ll make the right decision.”  She kissed the blonde’s cheek, then got up from the bed, grabbing her popcorn before leaving the room.

Felicity laid there a little while longer, thinking about her options.  She’d never faced a situation like this before.  In the past, she’d been the one trailing after guys, hoping they’d notice her and ignore her quirks.  But Oliver and Tommy knew her quirks.  They’d seen her in her ratty pajamas doing laundry runs.  They’d seen her with her hair all bedraggled from when she was caught in the rain.  They’d seen her with no makeup and her eyes all puffy from watching sad movies.  They’d seen her at her worst, and they liked her anyways.  They _both_ liked her anyways.  But did she like them, both of them, equally?  Did she like them enough to take this chance?

* * *

The week went by impossibly fast for Felicity, and agonizingly slow for the guys.  But when the time was up, as promised, Felicity walked across the hall and into their apartment.  They were sitting on their couch, watching TV, but that was quickly turned off when she entered.  She was wringing her hands in front of her as she stood near the door, her nerves on end as she looked over at them.

“Okay,” she stated, causing their eyebrows to shoot up.  “I-I’m not sure if this will work, and I’m still worried that I’ll lose your friendships, but everything I do is calculated.  I want to take a real risk for once.  But I need to set some ground rules.”

“That’s understandable,” Tommy replied, standing from the couch and walking towards her, pulling her towards where Oliver was waiting.  The blond pulled her into his lap and Tommy sat beside them, holding her feet in his lap.  “What are the rules?”

“First, no one gets left out.  If I spend alone time with one of you, then I spend alone time with the other,” she told them.  “Second, the second someone wants out, we stop this.  We take time apart to figure ourselves out and then reassess what happens next.”

“So if someone decides to leave, but the others want to stay together, they can?” Oliver asked.

“As long as the other person is okay with it, yeah,” she nodded.  “Third, we keep communicating the entire time.  The only way this is going to work is if we stay honest with each other.  We tell each other what we like, what we don’t like, what works, what doesn’t, what should be fixed, all of it.  We have to be constantly adjusting and adapting so we’re all happy.  I don’t want anyone to think they can’t say something, okay?”

“I’m pretty sure being honest isn’t going to be a problem,” Tommy assured her, his thumb absentmindedly brushing along her calf.

“Yeah, we can do that,” Oliver agreed.

“Good,” she sighed, feeling a little less nervous after this conversation.

“Is that it?” Tommy wondered.

“I have one last rule,” Felicity muttered, biting the inside of her cheek.  Tommy and Oliver simply looked at her, waiting for her to continue.  “I want to take things slow.  I don’t want this to rush into things and have it be hot and quick and then be over.  You two said you wanted to be with me, and after what happened with Ray, I need to be careful when it comes to my heart.  Is that okay?”

Tommy and Oliver looked at each other, then smiled up at her.  “That’s more than okay,” Tommy assured her.

“We do want to be with you, and we’ll go as slow as you need to,” Oliver added, rubbing her back.  “Anything else?”

She shook her head, smiling softly as she settled against Oliver.  “No, that’s it.  I’m still really hesitant about all of this, but I want to try.  I think I could be really happy with the both of you.”  She turned and kissed Oliver’s cheek, then leaned forward and kissed Tommy’s before shifting off of Oliver so she was sitting between them.  Tommy’s arm wrapped around her shoulder while Oliver took her hand, his other turning the TV back on and flipping to a movie that Felicity insisted they watch.  This was the beginning.  They weren’t sure where it would lead or what sort of obstacles they’d face, but they had hope.  In the end, hope was more powerful than the fear of the future ahead of them.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! There's a big chance that I'll continue with this story in little flashes of their relationship, but for now, I'm leaving it as is. If you want to see a certain aspect of their relationship, feel free to leave a suggestion in the comments. As always, any other feedback is welcomed and encouraged! :)


End file.
